Graham Godfrey to start Game 2 tomorrow; A’s call up two relievers

Graham Godfrey, up earlier this season for a time, will be called up tomorrow to start Game 2 of the doubleheader at Boston. He was the logical choice – he was scheduled to pitch for Triple-A Sacramento tonight, and he is having a terrific season there, going 13-3 with a 2.75 ERA. Anthony Recker, usually Godfrey’s catcher at Sacramento, will be behind the plate for that game.

Game 2 is already in peril, though – Hurricane Irene might be getting close enough to cause some problems from late afternoon on tomorrow. Some of the Fenway Park regulars have been saying that the doubleheader should have been scheduled for today to be on the safe side – the Red Sox, in a race with the Yankees – need to make sure they get in every game they can. They can’t afford to be playing makeup games right before the postseason starts. (Although if the makeups were just to determine first-place vs. wild-card – and it appears both will come out of the East – then the makeups won’t be played.)

The A’s called up some bullpen help after yesterday’s debacle; Bruce Billings and Jordan Norberto, who’d thrown plenty of pitches – 38 for Norberto, 57 for Billings – are out. Josh Outman and Jerry Blevins return to Oakland, and I very much hope this isn’t a return of one – or two – days for Blevins, who has been the designated yo-yo this year. The A’s will need to make a transaction to get Godfrey onto the roster and the best bet is a reliever who gets used tonight or in Game One tomorrow.

Outman was scheduled to start for Sacramento tomorrow, but he is on a five-inning limit because of his 2009 Tommy John surgery; when he was sent down last time, he already was at 100 innings pitched, and, he told me this afternoon, the decision was made then to keep the left-hander on a strict inning- and pitch count. So he knew if and when he got back to Oakland it would be in the bullpen. A five-inning-only starter wouldn’t work well in this league.

So the A’s have a bunch of lefties in the bullpen again: Outman, Blevins, Craig Breslow, Brian Fuentes.

One thing that was clear throughout that series in New York was that the idea that the Yankees get the benefit of borderline calls has some substance to it. The A’s pitchers didn’t get some of the same strike calls the Yankees did – most glaringly Andrew Bailey’s pitch to Robinson Cano on Tuesday that should have ended the game. In a 22-9 thumping, a team isn’t going to complain about borderline calls, but the trend seemed to continue, and I know there are a few sites that track such things.

A’s manager Bob Melvin is familiar with such sites, too, and with the concept that New York – and Boston, too – gets more calls than their opponents.

“You have to persevere and not let it get to you, even if that is the case,” Melvin said. “These are exciting places to play, well attended by passionate fans. If that really comes into play, who knows? But you have to deal with it.”

Melvin didn’t think Recker’s lack of familiarity with some of the A’s relievers played into any of the team’s pitching plummet yesterday. He said Recker was really just reduced to trying to get some of the relievers (read: Norberto and Billings)to throw the ball down the middle, and even that was proving difficult.

“It’s too bad it was his first game,” Melvin said. “He did get a lot of work – he might have lost a few pounds.”